Kudos to the folks sent to do the unpleasant task for not being heartless.  That would have broken my heart, too.

It might set a precedent, or it might not.  Probably not.  It’s a dangerous precedent to set.  There are an awful lot of people behind on their mortgages, and some of them are bound to be very old.  Charity and business are not one and the same thing.  Businesses shouldn’t be prevented from being charitable, but on the other hand they shouldn’t be forced to, either.

Nor should they be shamed into doing so, either.  Business is business.  It’s far too easy to gang up on banks for being heartless.  Shouldn’t adults be held responsible for their actions, lack of planning, whatever?  Shouldn’t older people be wiser as well?

I’m glad Ms. Hall and her daughter can stay in their house for the moment.  Banks shouldn’t be forced to let them, though.

The borrowers have until the end of April, 2012, to request a review under the guidelines of the agreement.  The parties involved acknowledge that it will be a huge amount of work to process the potentially 4 million requests, but have pledged to do so thoroughly and fairly.

Much of the rest of the process and its consequences are unclear now but the sheer volume of reviews could aid the recognition of patterns in foreclosure processing based on just about any measure — income, racial background, mortgage servicer, credit history, etc.  It will be interesting to see.

The only people winning out are the people being paid to demolish the homes.  The banks are destroying the collateral for defaulted loans.  The local government, for its want of fines, now misses out on tax revenue.  A person who would have bought the home at the right price no longer can.

Banks and local governments are playing monetary chicken with vacant homes.  Banks must either maintain the homes acceptably — a cost they’ll likely never get back — or face fines.  Local governments turn up the heat and expend effort to get the banks to maintain the properties, or else they become run-down and desirability of surrounding properties goes down, squatters move in, etc.

In this town, the banks flinched.  But neither the banks nor the town will win here.

What may make the foreclosure situation worse is that some communities and homeowners’ associations are clamping down on owners’ rights to rent their properties.  Without the option to rent out, owners are forced to carry the full weight of their mortgage payments until they can sell — or until they’re foreclosed on.  It’s simply HOAs looking after their interests, but it’s at the expense of strapped homeowners.

The 700,000 REO properties is huge.  That will take a while to burn off, and home prices will go down when they hit market.

No one’s immune.  If you’re not being foreclosed on, someone near you probably is, and that affects the value of your house and your neighborhood.

Falling property values in neighborhoods with abandoned houses makes sense.  Increased crime due to vandalism of abandoned properties make sense.  Increased occurrences of the West Nile virus from abandoned swimming pools makes sense once the pieces are put together, but that was probably beyond most people’s thoughts.  I know it didn’t occur to me.  Makes you wonder what else is down the road as the mortgage mess unravels.  I’m sure there will be more problems.